You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.

Unjust StewardLuke 16:1-31 And [de] he said [lego] also [kai] unto [pros] his [autos] disciples [mathetes] , There was [en] a certain [tis] rich [plousios] man [anthropos] , which [hos] had [echo] a steward [oikonomos] ; and [kai] the same [houtos] was accused [diaballo] unto him [autos] that [hos] he had wasted [diaskorpizo] his [autos] goods [huparchonta] .2 And [kai] he called [phoneo] him [autos] , and said [epo] unto him [autos] , How [tis] is it that I hear [akouo] this [touto] of [peri] thee [sou] ? give [apodidomi] an account [logos] of thy [sou] stewardship [oikonomia] ; for [gar] thou mayest be [dunamai] no [ou] longer [eti] steward [oikonomeo] .3 Then [de] the steward [oikonomos] said [epo] within [en] himself [heautou] , What [tis] shall I do [poieo] ? for [hoti] my [mou] lord [kurios] taketh away [aphaireo] from [apo] me [emou] the stewardship [oikonomia] : I cannot [ou][ischuo] dig [skapto] ; to beg [epaiteo] I am ashamed [aischuno] . KJV-Interlinear1 Now He was also saying to the disciples, 'There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and this steward was reported to him as squandering his possessions. 2 'And he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.' 3 'And the steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. NASB

In our current study, this will be the 24th of the Parables of Christ which will have studied thus far. We have covered a lot of ground and should be seeing by now the basics of Gods essence, His efforts toward mankind, and His expectations of each one of us.

Now we get into a parable which takes us out of the realm of human entertainment, and into the realm of human responsibility and priority. If you imagine that all the scriptures are nothing more than to amuse us, to entertain us, or just to allow us to scratch a guilty feeling from time to time, then you are sadly mistaken.

We do not have the scriptures just for the stories they hold, but to apply the principles contained therein for our benefit and for our application to our daily life.

Most folks will expend tremendous amounts of energy, plotting, planning, educational preparation, employment fancy footing, social climbing, or whatever means they have at their disposal, in order to get ahead in this carnal world. The carnal world will shortly be called 'mammon.' That will become a reference word for all the 'things' of this world. Things which are limited, will pass away, and are obtained through the energy of the flesh - human works. That includes everything in this world of which one can consider worthy or of fulfilling their desires, whatever those desires might be - legitimate or not.

A certain rich man (God), had a steward (every human being - that includes you). God was very rich. Everything that exists belongs to God. We as stewards, are only given things on loan. Actually we are given three things of infinite value - volition, time, and Bible doctrine. A fourth thing is the environment in which we live. Our environment includes our mental ability, our physical ability, the family we grow up in, our education, our career or job or means of earning a living - actually everything in our life. Our environment of life, just as the air we breath and the food we eat, is nothing more than the logistical means of sustaining our earthly life while we fulfill (or don't fulfill) our spiritual obligation to God.

The rich man has a steward. That rich man heard news of the stewards failings and called Him to account. 'What is this. Report your actions. Your fired.' And so it goes in life.

We will all be called to account and we will all be fired from our stewardship at the moment of our death. During our life, the record books are opened up and the details of our life are recorded. At some predefined point in time, God will call us home, and after our death at the appropriate time, we will be called before the Him (the Judgment Seat of Christ) and we will receive our evaluation.

This is not an evaluation of our carnal life, for that is worthless and will not be allowed into heaven, but our spiritual life will be evaluated, and from that we will receive our just reward (if any), and extra rewards (if any), Rev. 1-3.

Now, knowing that there will be a resurrection in the future, and knowing that there will be a judgment (evaluation for believers at the Judgment Seat of Christ), then the steward is faced with a dilemma. What to do now in life? We know that one day we will die - fired as stewards in this world. So we are faced with the question of how to live our life. To live for the moment - the duration of our human life, or to live for eternity - our life in heaven with God?

The steward is a failure, and having wasted the resources of the master, considers two options. 'I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg.'

Both of these pertain to his carnal life within this world. He would have done better to consider his life's decisions earlier in life, but at least it is better to consider ones choices too late than to never consider them at all.

Here the steward considers working from the sweat of his brow - digging. And, he decides that he cannot do this. But this is a picture of our souls inability of gaining a livelihood from this world through the works of human energy. No matter what we do in life (human effort) it will not be enough (even if we lived a thousand lives) to regain our stewardship with God. So human effort is out.

Next comes the possibility of begging. But that too is difficult since our arrogance stands in the way. Begging then is a picture of human arrogance which stands in our way of restoring ourselves to a respectable life before God. But then anyone who is not ashamed of cheating on God, should not be ashamed of begging for a life in this world. Or one would think, anyway.

The steward will not be doing a good thing, but a bad thing. However from his dishonest decisions and actions he will demonstrate his ability in ingenuity and his motivation to secure a good life for himself, in this life, in contrast to securing a good life for himself for all of eternity.

One more thing to point out here before we resume in this study tomorrow.

We all know the obvious limits of life. We are born and one day we will all die or leave this world by some means (death or rapture). For most people in history death is the exit path. Our life span can be from minutes to decades. The average life span is in the 70's and 80's of years before we all pass on.

Now after death our soul lives on forever. Forever lasts for gazillions of gazillions of gazillions of years and more. Now a very simple question. Which of these two phases of your life will be the longer phase? Your human life here on earth, or your eternal life in heaven? That should be an easy question to answer.

The next obvious question is this. Which life phase should you be more concerned with in your preparations for life?

As stewards of God, we all face the question of which part of our life we should be emphasizing - our worldly life, or our spiritual life. Of course the answer is to set a high priority in building up your spiritual life and maintain it throughout your entire life.

But you also have a responsibility in your worldly residence here on earth as God gives each one of us various gifts (abilities), and circumstances, with which we are to do the best we can do in our given life both for ourselves and for the purpose of helping others. So there should be a synergy between the two aspects of your life. Both will or should go hand in hand with the appropriate focus on God, His principles and His policies.

Now is the time to post a prayer.

End Of Lesson

Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.